good evening. 7:00 p.m. on the east coast, 4:00 p.m. on the west coast. i'm ari melber msnbc world

headquarters in new york. protests continuing around the country, releasing a brand-new statement the last few moments, and it provides an attempt at some clarification on confusion about aspects of president trump's controversial executive order barring travel to the u.s. by nationals of seven muslim majority countries. here is the new language. the secretary says that in providing the prigsz of the president's executive order, i hereby deem the entry of lawful permanent residents to be in the national security interest. he's saying that people with green cards are not included in the president's travel ban. that was a point of some contention all through this weekend. since the ban went into effect friday night, some green cardholders were detained, for example, at american airports. lawmakers and state attorneys general expressing concerns that customs and border officials may not be complying with the court order to deport anyone who has been refused entry in the united

states. the entire context of this is important because what the secretary has now done for those following this hour by hour is clear up a point of confusion that even trump officials have been unable to clarify over the course of the weekend. i'll give you a brief rundown here as we look at some of the scenes from around the country, the white house relatively quiet, protests still continuing. but as of friday night, the order was thought to include potentially those with green cards, according to some anonymous officials said. that was then. apparently reversed with dhs, explaining to folks that that wouldn't be a good idea. that lawful permanent residents who have been authorized to work in the country should be able to do so. and reversed again at least in public statements. reince priebus, the white house chief of staff, telling chuck todd that those lawful residents, those with green cord cards would be admitted. that didn't have the force of law, though. it took what i just red to you

on camera here tonight a brand-new statement from the secretary of homeland secured to say officially that that is the policy. as we mentioned throughout our coverage, that train of cheenev policy reversing days after the president signs it and being explained by press spokesman and other folks without the force of law is not routine, is not normal, and in some cases may violate administrative law and the administration. those are some of the issues we're tracking. we want to continue having given you an update on the breaking news and talk to sara dallof in atlanta. what are you seeing? >> reporter: well, hi, ari. this crowd has emptied somewhat in size. as you can see, here behind me, a very enthusiastic group continuing the chants, continuing to demonstrate here at the airport. now, they actually got started well before their scheduled start time this afternoon. i want to bring in one of the

organizers of the event. hillary holly, how many people have you estimated were here tonight? >> so we're estimating 5,000 people showed up here today. >> and that's more than you expected. >> yes, we were expecting about 3 3.3,000. however, we did take into consideration that many people were motivated because of the other protests across the nation. so we were actually prepared for additional people. >> why do you think this cause resonates so strongly with people? >> i just think that when you hear that people are being detained who live in suwanee who have lived here, have homes here, it is a major concern and major disappointment with this new administration. atlanta is a very inclusive city. there are thousands if not millions of ill grant immigrant refugees that live in clarkson. we want to continue to show our

solidarity with them and as you can see thousands of people also feel that way with us. >> i saw a strong law enforcement presence. they appeared mostly just to be making sure people stayed safe. did you hear of any problems during the demonstration? >> no, there were no problems with the demonstration. i had contact with the airport communications director constantly, every 20 or 30 minutes, send each other a text, making sure everything is okay and i always got positive responses from him. >> really cool operative agreement here. >> extremely cooperative. i can't thank harts feld jackson enough for helping us do such a short notice, you know, less than -- a little over 24 hours ago, this was brand-new. brand-new. and we galvanized and made it happen. >> 5,000 plus people. thank you so much, hillary. you heard her mention some people in suwanee, they were part of the group of 11 travelers who were detained yesterday.

detained for hours and questioned before they were released. all 11 we're told have been released, however, attorneys who are inside the airport are keeping their eye out for several travelers that they believe are coming in today who could, they worry, be detained by officials here. back to you. >> sara dallof in atlanta, thank you so much. steve patterson at l.a.x. joining us now with the latest there. when we last spoke, you said there was a controlled area for those protesters to be, but it was under control, looks like we can hear them behind you. what are you seeing? >> i'm seeing people as far as the eye can see. we have gotten an estimate of how many people we think are in this crowd. it is impossible to really get a perspective when you're inside it because you just can't see over people. but we're hearing it is somewhere in the area of 7,000 people. this thing has been going on for about five hours now. just about every hour we have seen it increase.

we have seen more people coming. still continuing to come as we speak. we mentioned earlier that the arrival gates towards the bottom, the street access, there were so many people that that street access was cut off for some time. police have been able to establish a line as you see here behind me. so they managed to get traffic flowing back, normal operations at the airport continue, but there are so many people in this tom bradley terminal, the international terminal, demonstrations in the top level, demonstrations in the bottom level, people spilling out all over the street and into parking garages, and this, again, has been continuing hour by hour and increasing. the number one thing we have heard from protesters obviously is that they believe immigration, which is so key to this country's functioning and founding, has been trampled on by that executive order from president trump. the second thing that we heard is that people believe there are still detainees inside here,

inside the airport, so they're being as loud as they possibly can, trying to get to customs border control who controls the situation, it release any information about their status, their whereabouts, or what is happening with the situation. so far we have heard nothing, the attorneys who are here trying to help people have heard nothing. and the protesters want answers and they're going to be here for quite some time trying to get them. back to you. >> steve patterson at a lively scene there at l.a.x., one of the many airports featuring forests. thank you for your reporting. we have more guests and experts coming up. we want to dip in an unfolding scene, you're looking at chicago. one of the protests where a press conference is being held. we're going to listen in. >> they don't want our voices being heard. so we need to be loud and clear today. we have allies from across the community, all different immigrant and nonimmigrant

communities, the african-american community and others, who are here today with us. trump has gone after latino immigrants. especially mexicanos and central americans, with his executive order last week attacking and threatening to cut federal funding to sanctuary cities like chicago. and also -- and also pledging to expand the wall on the mexico u.s. border. that's why -- that's why we're also demanding here no wall, no muslim ban, and an immediate end to all dhs and ice raids, detentions, and deportations. the theme of all of our press conference and protests has always been unity and resistance. the racist anti-immigrant, anti-black, anti-women, and

anti-poor people rhetoric that trump rode to victory in the elections was, of course, going to lead to the vicious racist policies of today. >> we have been listening there at chicago o'hare airport, where citizens have gathered, that is one of the protesters who has a microphone and is addressing those outside the airport. we have been reporting tonight on protests that have gathered at l.a.x., at jfk, at dallas airport, and as well as chicago, the scene you're witnessing there live, a lot going on, a lot of these protests have thinned, we're told, by our correspondents on the scene, but by no means ending as folks are gathering well into the night in some cities. we're going to fit in a quick break and our live special coverage continues after this. in a world that needs a hero, justice is spelled b-o-x. say hello to a powerful tool that gives you options to fit your budget. ♪ oh, i'm tied to this chair!

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welcome back to our msnbc special coverage. you're laoing at live scenes in

new york city where protests of president trump's immigration ban continue. we have had live reports from airports and other gathering places around the country. i can also tell you there is an unusual sunday night press briefing that is occurring over the last few minutes at the white house. we had a reporter in that and though we don't have the information yet, as soon as the reporter emerges from the white house, this hour, to be sure, i'll bring you that. to michael green, the president of truman national security project, iraq and afghanistan veteran and former member of the office of the white house council under president obama. i've spoken to you about some of the issues, but never in a situation quite like this. i guess big picture given your experience and what you know and what you've been through, i wonder what your thoughts are through this weekend. >> good to be back. i got to tell you, this is an unprecedented thing in american history in a lot of ways. as you said, i started my life, as an army officer, i fought in iraq and afghanistan, i probably

would not be alive today. i'm sure i wouldn't be. if iraqis, afghans, interpreters and soldiers in the armies hadn't stood up and taken care of me. for standing with me, because i wore the american flag on my shoulder, and some day we're going to put the names of every american soldier, sailor, airman, marine, coast guardsman we lost in the wars up in granite in washington, d.c. and if you ask me, her name belongs on that wall too. for donald trump to tell her she can't come to that country, for him to say to the families of the 15,000 iraqi and peshmerga soldiers who died fighting isis, our number one enemy, over the last couple of years in iraq alone, that they are not welcome in the united states, this is an outrage against everything i ever stood up to defend. and it is an idiotic strategy. and beyond that, the way this has been executed by the

administration shows a level of incompetence, and disorganization and a weakness from this white house, not consulting business leaders, not going through the appropriate legal champnnels, and just rollg out this executive order without apparently even having any idea what it means. i spent the last most of the weekend out at dulles international airport with a bunch of other lawyers trying to get access to people as they were coming in. we couldn't get back there to speak to people. they had no access to attorneys. and it was very dleclear, they no idea how to interpret the order. they had no guidance from the white house. this is amateur hour when it comes to national security. >> you mentioned the security process, the national security process, which is governed under a federal law, but also has executive authority for certain reorganization. if there weren't the forests and

wasn the chaos this weekend, the big story would be the other executive order to your point that reduces the access and role of career intelligence professionals on the national security council and adds in a political adviser and a former proprietor of a major, you know, right wing news site, breitbart, steve bannon, on to the national security council process. i wonder as a military guy, what you think of that. >> i think it is extremely disturbing. i want to know who woke up in the morning and said, you know, we don't need the chairman of the joint chiefs to be a mandatory attendee at all the principles meetings of the national security council, but let's get the breitbart guy inw around the world. steve bannon, his background is extremely trouble ing to me and many others. but beyond that, why do we think this guy knows the first thing about national security? i mean -- >> can you think of another example in history where someone

who is essentially a political aid to the president was put into the national security council process like this? >> not in american history. you know, you see people who wear the uniform, whose job it is to not answer to political demand, but to stand up for the national security interests of the country and see political people like the director of the office of management and budget also moved out of the principle's meeting, along with the chairman of the joint chiefs, see them coming out in straight political hacks, you know who have been pushing right wing, white nationalist extremist agenda in public for years step in and those are the people who are going to decide the national security direction of the united states, that's extremely disturbing. and i think we all ought to have our eyes open on that, but i think it speaks to the weakness and the disorganization of this white house that this was aloued to happen at all. the adults have to be in charge, but they're not in the west wing now. >> michael green, president of

the truman national security project and veteran. thank you for your time. >> thank you. >> for more, i want to turn to kelly o'donnell, the last time we spoke we were discussing whether we would get more than an anonymous statement regarding whether green card residents were not going to be banned, which was what we had. we have an official statement which has more procedural force from dhs, confirming that. i understand you have been working your sources there inside the white house on this busy sunday evening. what can you tell me about any and all of the above? >> well, a group of reporters was in the west wing and we had a meeting with three administration officials who have been at the table formulating this policy and trying to answer some questions that have come up in the last 24 hours. and the way it was depicted, their assessment of how this is going is in superlative terms. i'll run through the points they made in this conversation.

we talked about the people who have a green card what they tried to clarify for us is that this special kind of consideration for those who have green cards, but they will need a waiver. they went through a lot of detail about how under the law, the step is required, but it is the intention of the executive order that anyone who has permanent legal status in the united states would have a priority to be able to travel in and out of the united states and they cite the numbers saying that roughly 170 who were in that category were in fact pushed through with a waiver very quickly. they talk about that. they say this plan was approved by the office of legal council and they talked about the fact that this executive order about these seven countries and the travel restrictions was worked on for many months, written by some immigration experts on capitol hill, so rejecting the notion that capitol hill was not involved. they talk about how they breathed the top people at state and dhs, department of homeland security, customs and border

patrol, went through that, and spoke in superlative terms about how they feel the first 24 hours has gone smoothly. they say that this -- the number of people who were caught in travel, they have been on an airplane, were detained here, that number of roughly 109, that they're being processed quickly. they believe that it is moving smoothly. and they talked a great deal about the issue of how this is setting up a procedure to have new vetting principles for countries that have a history that is of concern. they talk ed again about the fact that these were seven countries identified by the obama administration and that president obama had also sent limits on travel from these countries and they continue the same seven. over the course of the period of time this pause as they call it on travel, they will expect other countries that they are dealing with to adhere to some new vetting procedures that will be worked out over time, they didn't give us the specifics on that. and then that will determine the next phase. after the 90 days that we're

talking about with this temporary ban. from inside the trump white house, their assessment of this is that it is following not only the campaign promises, but the responsibility to protect the nation, when i asked about all of the protests at airports and cities around the country, and the sentiment among many protesters that this does not live up to american values, they responded that a very strong american value is for the president to protect the country. and they have a belief they hold very strongly that there is a risk of persons coming through the country, through some of these hot spots around the world, who could possibly do harm. and that extra scrutiny is required. for those people that pass through, and do not present a risk, they're saying the cost of that extra time is worth it in a trade-off for safety. that's sort of the sentiment. this was a long conversation. >> two questions, one quickly. you said that their overall view was that the process this

weekend was, quote, smoothly run, is that correct? >> yes. they think that it moved efficiently and they believe that it was done professionally. and they're saying that there were 325,000 people who came into the country by air, and we're talking about 110, 170 different numbers like that that were in the situation. so they're trying to say, the people on the front line follow the rules, properly behaved, worked efficiently to get people through. that is the assessment coming from the trump white house. i'm telling you what they are explaining to us. >> understood. it is incredibly revealing that this is as of -- i would say, what, you came out, we were waiting to get you out ten, 15 minutes ago, right? >> i came out literally five minute s ago. we were in a probably half hour conversation. >> as of this moment, your sources inside the trump white house say this has gone smoothly this weekend. and point to the numbers that show that the largest, you know,

portion of people who entrer th country every day were unaffected in their view and they say because of the small number it was a smooth process, that is interesting to get their view of it as of sunday night. the second question i have for you is more broadly. you messengered they're telling you justice department office of legal council approved this, that's an important thing, because that's the part of the justice department that says whether something is lawful or not. so it would be a good thing for any administration to make sure to check with them in advance, you're saying they were cleared in advance. i want to play for you some recent remarks from rudy giuliani, former prosecutor, and former adviser and sometime adviser to donald trump about what he says was the genesis of how this was written. take a listen. >> when he first announced it, he said muslim ban. he called me up, he said put a commission together, show me the right way to do it legally.

we focused on, instead of religion, danger. the areas of the world that create danger for us which is a factual basis. not a religious basis. perfectly legal, perfectly sensible. >> based on that description, from rudy giuliani over the weekend, does that match what you're learning from inside the white house, that there was a shift in that was drawn up, it was smitd ubmitted to doj and l with what we got? >> none of that sentiment from the former mayor was reflected in the comments from the officials who talked with us about the history of how this came to pass, said it was begun during the campaign era, then through the transition, then the post election transition and now as the administration. there was no discussion of that. they emphasized the importance of tolerance in the country, and protecting american values, and kept emphasizing that these are

steps to try to screen from dangerous areas as they described it, seven countries that have been identified, high risk people who might come into the country. and that was their focus. and their argument for efficiency has been that a matter of hours of being detained and then passed through is a sort of a price to pay, a balance for safety. so -- just on that point, i want to get you this before we exit -- >> no discussion of religion. they emphasized very carefully in this meeting that really the more -- the evolution from what mayor giuliani was talking about. that it is not a religion base. >> mayor giuliani was saying that he on the direction of donald trump drew something up as an outgrowth or continuation of the muslim ban. you were walking out of the white house and telling us the

aides who spoke with you are disputing that kind of history and saying this was in the an outgrowth of any religious ban. >> that's what they're telling us. they're saying this was drawn up from the expertise of people who know immigration law, on capitol hill, and mayor giuliani was not mentioned in any shape or form, he's not a part of the administration, though he's been an ally of donald trump for quite some time. that's not where their focus was. they're having this conversation with reporters tonight, because they understand that there have been large public protests, questions about the implementation of this, the intention of this, and they wanted to go through some of what they think are sort of misunderstandings about that they're trying to do and how they are executing it. and that's why they wanted to read us in on where they think things are now and to try to emphasize that they took steps to have this passed through the proper legal channels, to notify the departments that would need to carry it out, and then kind of looking forward to what would come after this point in trying

to set up new vetting procedures, working with the can countries that have been identified, perhaps others over time, to try to tighten up in their view the entrance into the united states if there are people who present a risk. and they constantly emphasize that anyone who has got a green card is a -- that is a contract, that they want to be good around the world, and so the green card must be honored, and they're saying they will do that. however, there is this step where a person with a graeen cad needs a waiver. they gave us legal reasons for that. a lot of discussion among reporters back and forth about the semantics of that. but their intention is that there be no effect on those with green cards. and that there is no deportation associated with this. they emphasize that as well. these are complex issues. a lot of sort of legal discussion, then a lot of the atmosphere in which this is all happening, ari, which you know. and there are political counterweights happening as well. and there was, i think, some

frustration, they felt that republicans have been critical when they felt that republicans had to some degree been part of the process in crafting this. >> well, and we have been covering this as you know from every angle and we heard a lot from critics and those challenging the bans, we also reached out and gathered all of the white house perspective whenever possible and you have been a big part of that, relaying what we heard from the white house. thank you for your reporting. >> good to be with you. i want to bring in a wnbc reporter, ida siegel. you have some new information. go ahead. >> we have been witnessing a number of detainees being released throughout the afternoon. and evening today. and every time they are released the demonstrators who are here protesting cheer for them. we have got maybe 150 demonstrators still outside terminal 4 at this point. they're waiting for more detainees to be released and come back out. many of these same people were

here last night when it first game clear that folks traveling from the countries listed in president trump's executive order would not be allowed out of the airport here. we're talking about legal residents, some of them with green cards, who traveled overseas and could not return home, but we're also talking about other fobs with green cards who were arriving in the united states for the first time and they too initially at least were not let outside of the airport. we witnessed as one man and his son from iran was finally released from the airport, the protesters here shouted welcome, welcome. another woman arrived from iraq. her attorneys told me she does have a green card, she was sponsored for legal residency to come here to new york and live with her daughter who is a u.s. citizen. but because she flew from iraq, she was detained for as many as 30 hours, she has since left the airport and is home with her

family now. ultimately it was a number of volunteer attorneys inside the terminal that facilitated her release and the release of a handful of other detainees at this point. many of these families are grateful to have their loved ones home. they are well aware that travel to and from their native countries will now be much more difficult. the protesters here tell me they plan to stay here tonight until all of the detainees are released. actually difficult at this point to tell how many more people are still detained here at jfk. organizers are told that even as people are released, there are still more people arriving who are detained at the airport as well. volunteer attorneys are inside working furiously with them in the terminal to get them released. but, again, those detainees, i'm told it could be anywhere from 3 to as many as 13, still inside the terminal, terminal 4 at this point. these demonstrators plan to stay

here until they are released. we will be here throughout the night to see if they actually in fact do that and to see how many more people perhaps might be released from the airport. ari, back to you. >> thank you for that report, ida. new information. let our control room know as you learn more. we'll come back to you. florida's airports have also been in the mix here. the skin cene of the protest, descending on three major airport hubs. orlando, ft. lauderdale and miami. los frankel is a florida congresswoman keeping an eye on all of this. your thoughts on what has unfolded this weekend. >> thank you. good to be with you. i was at the west palm beach airport today when citizens were out there rallying. let me make a couple of points. first of all, here's what i agree with president trump. he has a priority should be for him and the congress to keep our country safe. but here's where i disagree. the actions he took which were

the most sweeping actions to ban people from entering into this country, not only do they denigrate american values, but they're going to make us less secure, not more secure. and his actions would not have stopped 9/11. the terrorist attacks in san bernardino, in boston, in my home state of orlando. >> and so when you think about that, what is the working theory here as we were talking earlier in the show, members of congress coming back to work on monday and tuesday of this week, you have this list of countries you have the trump administration saying, you know where they got the list, they got it from you, congressman frankel, from your colleagues, from the obama administration. they are pointing as you know to statutes that cited these countries that we have up on the screen for our viewers as dangerous to visit. i want to make that distinction clear because the trump administration has said it in a way that might confuse people,

congress and the obama administration said that people who otherwise would have a waiver from europe coming to the united states, if a person is stopped in one of those countries you see on the screen, they would get extra vetting. that's where they got the list. they turned it into a ban and then they're taking this and throwing it at your doorstep. what is your response? >> that's just an example of their alternative facts. the fact of the matter is we put in the requirement for visas to have that extra protection. and the real fact is that the refugees coming over that are fleeing death, starvation, we're talking about children, who are fleeing death, starvation, mutilation, barrel bombs, rape, they're coming here after an 18-month vetting process that they go through now. and what this executive order has done has handed isis a recruiting tool. i told the crowd today, the

airport, lady liberty is crying and isis is rejoicing because the real danger in this country is the radicalization of people who live here, it is the recruitment by isis over the internet. and we have handed them a tool. >> congresswoman, what you're saying, we heard from many experts over the course of our coverage, the difference, of course, between them and you is your vote. what do you plan to do about it? what are the democrats going to do about this? >> well, i plan we'll be back in washington tomorrow. i believe they're going to be a number of measures to either overturn the action or defund this action. i will stand with my like mnded colleag colleagues. i heard criticism by democrats and republicans and i hope that we'll bring some rationality and common sense to this. we all want to keep america safe. this action takes us in the

wrong direction. >> congresswoman lois frankel, we'll be reporting on and keeping an eye on what you do with regard to those plans and thank you for joining us tonight. >> thank you. now more to come. we have reaction from a former state department official on how this all works. you're looking at a live shot there of dulles airport in washington, d.c., where we see people with signs, we see protesters, we all see travelers making their normal way through what is anything but a normal weekend for america's airports. our special coverage continues after a break. >> tonight, there will be thousands again out here at o'hare to call for trump to rescind, cancel his executive order. cancel the executive order. and for the release of all

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donald j. trump is calling for a complete shutdown of muslims entering the united states until our country's representatives can figure out what the hell is going on. >> there you have it. you may remember that moment, that was donald trump for first time on the campaign trail announcing a plan for what he called a temporary muslim ban. now, he later hedged on that-long and adjusted it. on friday, the president signed his first stab at this conversation. it was a now controversial executive order restricting entry to the united states by a range of categories. this decision has set off waves of protests around the country. it forced certain travelers who were in transit when the order

went no effect into unexpected detention at a variety of airports across the united states. and it sent the trump administration into spasms of clarifications tonight. the president releasing his statement trying to reiterate the contrary to what we just played on the campaign, this is not a muslim ban or an outgrowth of it. he says, tonight, this is not about religion, this is about terror and keeping our country safe. there are over 40 different countries worldwide that are majority muslim not affected by this order. we will be issuing visas to all countries once we're sure we have reviewed and implemented most secure policies over the next 90 days. joining us now is naiera hack, a former state department spokesperson. what is the significance of donald trump's past statements as a candidate to what he now claims he's not doing, he is basically saying pay no attention to that guy who talked about banning muslims in the primary. >> i think what we're seeing is

an administration that is really, really struggling to shift gears from politics to policymaking. having been in the room, as decisions are made, and there is a discussion about how do you share this information with the american public and how do you implement it in a way that will be effective, what we have seen this week goes against every common sense action that you should be taking. for example, a briefing to reporters on background which is administration officials who are experts talking about the how and why of doing something, like this executive order. that should have been done three or four days ago. so that the administration's perspective and story and questions and everything could be answered up front. that's helpful to inform the american public. instead, what you this is a draft that was hastily put together sent around to a handful of officials as the officials who are responsible for implementing it at the embassies on the ground, they were being let go. and another interesting aspect is the legal side of this.

there is the logistics, and the legal side of this, which is you're hearing justifications of we vetted this with the department of justice, we vetted this with legal council. they really didn't vet this with the people who are responsible for making the laws, which is congress. and congress has in the last several years been in an uproar over the use of executive orders as executive overreach. it is the president's job to execute the law of the land, but congress is making lawsue ining the land. it will be interesting to see as they return back to d.c. tomorrow how they handle this, essentially their power as representatives of the people is being undermined. >> are you suggesting that even a tightening of immigration could have been better executed for some of these goals had it gone through congress and the agencys? >> there is a consent and consulting aspect of working within our branches of government, but certainly it would have been much easier to

avoid last minute court proceedings that required new york and boston and virginia for judges to rule on the constitutionality of this and essentially stay the action, all of this could have been avoided -- >> state part of the action. >> stay part of the action. but when you have further legal challenges, a part of the executive order being challenged could lead to the entire executive order collapsing. again, all of these are questions that should have been sorted out, in advance, discussed, so we didn't have -- there is no need for the american public to have to be standing up for its rights and standing up for american values in this way and protests around the country had the white house actually planned this as better policy instead of just rushing to implement campaign promises. >> you're echoing something that aclu director anthony ramiro said tonight that the haphazard and rushed way this was carried out on friday was a gift to challengers of litigation. now guaranteed them an active

court challenge and a partial victory already and that was all based only on the airport chaos. wasn't based on the underlying larger policy question, but now they're in court, they have standing, they have a procedural step of a federal judge pushing back on president trump and i don't know, you said, of course, you worked on the obama white house. can you think of any time a president had a court brushback and ordered this early in their presidency one week in? >> one week in, the day of, that's what is really remarkable about this. such a poorly written order that you had, border patrol officials not knowing what they were meant to implement or not, for example, this entire issue of green card holders, when has that ever been a concern for terrorism. it is usually we're talking about -- these are people legally in the u.s., who have been living, who have gone through years of processing, just to get that status and they have to do checks, there is all sorts of vetting that is already

there. the question is why, in the order of immigrants, you can stop immigrants, that's a broad swath of people. what is a young guy who is at the border patrol, who is just responsible for checking that document is real, and what the history of the person is, how is he supposed to be interpreting that. no one knows. and so there is that logistical challenge. and there is a theoretical now legal challenge of essentially undermining what congress' responsible it. >> we're out of time. but parts of the order were written as if someone had no working knowledge of immigration law or border security. that is the nicest factual way to put it. and we have seen the reaction of that in particular obviously the trump administration as of tonight doesn't feel they did it the right way prosecution if they had to reverse the way they were doing it on saturday, a fast turn around on legal residents to say the least. >> and they are -- >> we're out of time. thank you so much. we're going to take a quick break and be right back.

our special coverage continues. you are looking at a live shot here of washington, d.c., dulles international airport, where protesters continue to gather inside and outside the airport while travel continues. joining us from there is nbc correspondent darcy spender. what are you seeing? >> reporter: well, we just arrived here not too long ago, but i was here at the airport until about 1:00 this morning. let's show you what's happening right now. there continue to be protesters here. you can see they're holding their signs saying stop the hate, no hate, no fear. they've been doing chanting, they've been doing singing. this is really sort of a welcoming party here at the international arrivals area. when you see people clapping and

cheering, it's usually from someone arriving from an international flight. it may not be someone who was detained. but they're wanting people to know no matter where they're coming from, they are welcome here in the united states. there were reports yesterday that 50 to 60 people were detained here at the airport, and we've been having a very hard time getting information from customs and border protection to find out how many may be detained today. so the information is not flowing like we would like it to, and you can see right now some of the people who are average here from these international flights being welcomed by the protesters demonstrators who have been here for many, many hours, overnight and today. they got here about 4:30 yesterday afternoon. that's when the governor came here to let us know what was happening, and also to say the president's order was unamerican. earlier today there were four members of congress from player mare and virginia who came here to dulles international airport

demanding to meet with some of the detainees, but they were turned away. so, again, not getting a lot of information at this point in terms of whether there are any detainees being held at this point from those targeted countries. we should also say if you look in the crowd, you'll also see a lot of attorneys. they are offering free legal services to anyone who was detained coming here into the country. back to you. >> darcy spencer, thank you for that report. appreciate it. we also have steve patterson at another large airport, lax. he's been there for a good part of the afternoon. what are you seeing and do you know anything of that same question, whether there are people detained at this hour inside the airport? >> ari, we're about six hours into this thing, and you can still hear the crowd roaring. it has not changed, really, for the last few hours. estimates now put this crowd at about 7,000 people in just maybe an area of about three

terminals. it got so bad at some point they had to shut down access to a few of the terminals on the lower level. a police line has formed to try to keep everybody in line. but as you see, people continue to chant, continue to cheer, continue to ask for justice, continue to demand for those detainees to be released. again, the same thing here. we really don't know how many of them are there, what their status is and kind of where they've been moved to. so, again, a lot of confusion here from friends, from family, from those attorneys who have been trying to help those people get information to their loved ones. that has not changed in the six hours as well. and neither has the crowd size as this continues into the night. send it back to you. >> all right. nbc's steve patterson, thank you very much. i want to turn to mark he headfield, who is head of the hebrew society, head of displaced people. i'll ask you what i've asked

others here. the big picture, what you've seen unfold over the weekend. >> what we saw on friday was the most vile thing coming out of the white house in my 20 years working in the field, this executive order, which was so unamerican, by slamming the door in the face of refugees when they need it the most. but what i've seen over this weekend has been one of the best things i've ever seen. seeing americans in the streets chanting, "no hate, no fear, refugees are welcome here" made me proud to be an american, which is not what i was feeling on friday night. >> how does that matter? rachel maddow was saying earlier tonight that the protest movement, the activity, the people gathered this all these places will be the first counterpush and will create the sort of baseline for how many aspects of our country respond, government, civil society, the culture, if we can be so broad,

given yobroad,. given the work in your area, is this going to be viewed more accepting? >> it should be. we welcome our refugees and it galvanizes people to see them work together. we had 700 rabbis in 400 different states and the district of columbia signed a statement saying we need to keep our doors open for refugees. we were hoping that would have an influence on president trump. obviously, it did not. so all we have left is protest. >> do you think that this administration simply misunderstands the threat matrix given the apparent focus on refugees in this order? >> no. i do not. the pretense of this document, the excuse of this document was security, but we already have extreme vetting.

president obama installed extreme vetting in 2011 when he stopped the program for iraqis for six months. we have it already. when you read the purpose part of the executive order, it was very clear where they were coming from. there is not one kind word about refugees, not one word about what they've contributed to this country, not one word about what they're fleeing from. instead the entire document focuses on how they're a threat to us, how they're a security threat, how they are, ironically, bigots. how they want to impose sharia law and not the american constitution. their intention was so clear from the surface part of this document. they could have put a throwaway line in there that said something decent and nice about refugees, but they didn't. this was meant to exclude muslims from this country. >> right, you mentioned the introduction to the document and what it says it was setting out to do and the lack of what had been a bipartisan tradition of talking about the american values with refugees and the idea that americans, of course,

in our history come from other countries and protect human rights. mark hatfield from his. that wraps up three hours of live coverage. i'm ari melbourne. thanks for watching. we'll have updates throughout the evening on msnbc.